Boxmaking system



Feb. 20, 1951 J, 5, STOKES 2,542,099

BOXMAKING SYSTEM Filed Jan. 16, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet l 6 Fig.1.

7 "INVENTOR I I r JOHN s. ST 81 ii WY 11 J a M" 9. ATTORNEYS Feb. 20, 1951 J. s. STOKES 2,542,099

BOXMAKING SYSTEM Filed Jan. 16, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 JOHN S. STOKES LLM Mn ATTORNEYS I INVENTOR Patented Feb. 20, 1951 BQXMAKIN G SYSTEM John S. Stokes. Huntingdon Valley, Pa.; May Margaret Stokes; John S. Stokes, Jr., D. Robert: Yarnall, BhilipPricaPercy C. Madeira, Jr and. Providentflrust Co. of Phila elphia. exicu crs ofv said. John S.v Stokes, deceased, assigncrs; to; Stoke and. Smith Ccmp nyiPhil e rhiai Pa,

a corporation of Pennsylvania Application January 16, 1946, SerialNo. 641,485

(Cl. 93 j54 7Claims,

This invention relates. to, systems in which sheet material isapplied to box blanks, and has for an object theprovision of a method. for in. creasing the output of such a system. The sheet material in the form of individual sheets, labels.

or wrappers, whether tabbed or untabbed, will be generically referred to herein by the term wrapper or wrappers; the box blanks, whether stayed or unstayed, or with the walls erect or otherwise, will be generically. referred to herein by the term box blank or box blanks.

In accordance with my Patent 2,362,168 of November 7, 1944, there is. disclosed a system in which. an operator manually registers a box biankon a wrapper which is then folded about and adhesively secured to the walls thereof. In that system',v a guide is provided to. assist the operator in quickly and accurately registering a box blank on a wrapper. Though my prior system has been very satisfactory in accord ance. with the present. invention the output or the boxes made per hour. may, be further increased without, increasing fatigue or loss of. efliciency of the operator.

In carrying out the present invention in, one form thereof, there are provided. duplex. Wrap.-

pers which are mechanically joined. together and.

which are delivered in succession. to anassembly station. At the station they are brought to standstill in predetermined relation to a guide having indexes or stops by means of which two box blanks may be properly registered. on each half of a duplex wrapper. The box blanks, are deliver d within ready reach, of the operator by means of a conveyor, and they rest upon a delivery shelf in side-by-side relation. Thus, the opera ator can. grasp a box blank in. each. hand and substantially simultaneously place themin registration on each half of the duplex wrapper. To,-

minimize the possibility of improper registration, and to assist in guiding the box bl'anksto. their proper positions with respect. to the in dexes, there is provided an apron or guiding means which supports at leastv one end of the. box blank until it has been moved substantially to its final position in registry on the, box

wrapper. In accordance with the invention, the

output of the system may be substantially twice that, of the system, disclosed in my aforesaid patent.

The, invention further residesv in the features of construction, combination. and arrangement hereinafter described and, claimed,

For a more detailed understanding of the invention, and for-furtherobjects advantages thereof, reference is; to, be, hadto the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings; in which:

Fig; l is a planview of a system embodying the invention Fig. Z'lS. an enlarged fractional. plan view of the guide and index means associated therewith;

Fig. 3 is a fractional view of Fig. z-illustrating one of the, index means in a retracted position and. the box assemblies in positions enroute from the assembly station;

4 is a fractional sectional View taken on line rof Fig. 1- with the guide omitted;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged. view of a duplex wrapper; and

Fig. 6 is a plan view of a duplex wrapper of substantially the reverse proportions of the one illustrated in Fig. 5.

Referring to the drawings, the preferred form of the invention has been illustrated as applied to a box making system wherein a machine 59 of the type shown. inBailey Patent 2,276,683 cornprises. a means for feeding box wrappers to a suction conveyor H, which transports them to an assembly station i2 and thence to a wrap ping machine it. This machine preferably is of the type shown in Bailey Patent 2,252,758. with certainv modifications. Intermediate the ends of the conveyor H and the machines IE and i3, is located a bender M of the type shown in 'Federwitz Patent 2,295A6l, or preferably Stokes Patent 2,352,665, which bends the side panels of each box, blank upon predetermined score lines. Av delivery shelf i5 is associated with a conveyor it which extends from the delivery shelf to a receiving position for box blanks delivered from the bender it. The box blanks are delivered in succession by the bender it. One: of them, the box, blankii, is shownin Fig. 1 about midway of the conveyor it. After arrival ontheconveyor iii it is moved toward the assembly station it but due to the interposition of. a guide l8 it travels to the left until its arrival on the delivery shelf i5. Its final position is il-. lustrated bythe box blank 59. The guide it after the forward movement of the box blank ll is, rotated in a counter-clockwise direction about a pivot 26 by means of a crank 23! driven by any suitable. means such as the gears 22 and 23.

The final position of the guide it is shown by conveyorifi, andduring; the; forward movement.

of the second blank the guide i8 is returned to the illustrated position for delivery of the second box blank to a position illustrated by that of the box blank 25. With these two box blanks i9 and 25 disposed on the delivery shelf 55 in side-by-side relation and within ready manual reach, an operator positioned at the assembly station !2 may grasp them, one in each hand,'

and substantially simultaneously register them on their res ective wrappers.

Further in accordance with the invention, the glue-applying and wrapper-delivering machine H3 is arranged to deliver duplex wrappers to the conveyor H in predetermined positions thereon. Each duplex wrapper, as best shown in Fig. 5, comprises a pair of box wrappers having the panels on one side thereof attached to each other so that they may be handled as a unit both before and after delivery to the conveyor I I. More specifically, one-half of the duplex wrapper 3i! comprises end panels 35 and 32, a side panel 33, a body panel and a side panel 35, which at its respective ends joins the respective ends of a side panel 35 of the other half of the duplex wrapper. That half of the wrapper also includes a body panel 3?, a side panel 33, and two end panels 39 and ift. It will be observed that the end panels 8l-32 and Sisare provided with tabs M which extend across the end panels. They have a length adequate to insure that they will be folded over the corners of the box to provide additional strength. The side panels 35 and though they may be joined together throughout the length thereof, are preferably divided intermediate the ends thereof by means of a slit d3 which not only facilitates later severance of the shoulder or stop 56 accurately determines its po- 54 out of its path. When moved to its retracted position, it does not in any way interfere with forward movement of the double box assembly.

It may be further emphasized that the conveyor H is preferably of the suction type, where a perforated steel plate '60 forming the upper respective halves of the duplex wrapper but also forms an index line along which the duplex wrapper is divided.

In Fig. 1, there are illustrated a duplex wrapper 5 3 just after its delivery to the conveyor 5 l, a

, duplex wrapper at the assembly station 12,

and a duplex wrapper 45 together with box blanks 3'. and 5t adhesively secured thereto and forming a double box assembly ready for delivery to the wrapping machine it. There are also shown at the assembly station 12, box blanks 58 and in registry with the respective halves of the duplex wrapper 55. Accordingly, it will be understood that the operator has moved the box blanks 5i and 5! from the delivery shelf i5 toward a stationary guide 52 and into registry with an index comprising a member 53 and a retractable index comprising the member 54.

The guide 52 is, in general, of similar construction to the one shown in my said Patent 2,362,168,

and the index member 53 may be of the'type shown therein. However, the index member 54, in the position for registry of a box blank, extends outwardly into the forward path of the box blank 5 To avoid interference therewith, the member shown in Figs. 2 and 3 is pivoted at 55 and is biased by a very light spring (not shown) to the position illustrated in Fig. 2, where it will be observed the intermediate portion of member 54 abuts against a stop 55. The stop 55 comprises the end of a slot in a guide bar 51 which is adjustably carried by the guide 52. The index member 54, pivoted to the guide bar 51 at a position spaced from the guiding edge thereof, is free to move through the slot in the guide bar 57 and out of the path of the box blank 58. The spring biasing the index member 54 can be very light since it is only necessary for it to move the mem- 4 ber 54 outwardly of the slot in the bar 51. The.

,to the duplex wrapper H.

half of a suction box 6!, Fig. 4, supports a perforated conveyor belt 62 through which suction is applied to the duplex wrappers to maintain them in predetermined positions.

Further in accordance with the invention, the delivery shelf I5 is provided with a downwardly inclined adjustable guide 55a, Fig. 4, which extends outwardly over the conveyor ii to support the trailing end of the box blank 59 as it is moved to a registering position with respect to a wrapper, as illustrated by the position of the box blank 5|. In this manner, there is avoided premature contact of any bottom surface of a box blank with the adhesively-coated wrapper until the blank has been placed in predetermined position by registration with the respective index members 53 and 5% and with the side of the guide bar 5'! of the guide 52.

After the box blanks 5B and 5i have been registered on the duplex wrapper $5, the conveyor I i transports them to the delivery position. As shown, transfer means is provided for engaging the corners of the boxes to move the duplex assembly to the wrapper 3. The transfer mechanism has been diagrammatically indicated by the corner-engaging members 5% and 61. Though the duplex wrapper may be severed by lengthen- "ing the slit 33, Fig. 5, at any time after assembly of the box blanks thereon, there has been shown a severing means it], Fig. 1, which consists of a knife operable by relative movement with res ect The knife may be located at the illustrated location of another duplex wrapper 52.. Thus, in the preferred form of the invention, the two or more assemblies are me chanically locked together through the duplex wrapper until arrival at the wrapping machine i3.

In the form of the wrapping machine I3 as disclosed in said Bailey Patent 2,26 ,788, adjustments, within predetermined limits, may be made to take care of boxes of different sizes. In this connection, the spacing of the plungers in the wrapping machine I3 is relatively fixed, and though that distance may be varied, in many existing machines it is not convenient to do so. However, in the event it is desired to make boxes where, if disposed side by side as in Fig. 5, the centers would be much closer together, the wrapping machine !3 may be utilized by delivering wrappers in the manner illustrated in 6. In Fig. 6, the double wrapper i3 i delivered to the conveyor it with the greater dimensions of the wrappers lengthwise of the conveyor. Accordingly, the distance from center to center between the two halves of the wrapper is more nearly that of the 'plungers of the wrapping machine 63. Accordingly, boxes of many sizes may be made on the machine with a minimum number of changes in the adjustments of theparts thereof.

Since the wrappers may be joined together along a side as in Fig. 5, or along an end a in Fig. 6, it is to be understood that reference in the claims to wrappers joined together along a side is to be taken as a generic term applicable to both Figs. 5 and 6. The guide 52 and the stops or indexes 53 and 54 are adjustable to conform with the size of box being made. More particularly, the guide 52 is in the form of a cantilever, the supporting end of which is slidable on rods 15 and '15 and may be moved to the desired position by an adjusting screw 71 rotatable by a knob 18. The stop 53 may be adjusted by loosening the screw 19 and sliding the stop 53 in the desired direction, an elongated slot being indicated in Fig. 2 for that purpose. The bar 5'! which carries the pivot pin 55 may be adjusted to position the index 54 by loosening screws 8| and 82 which extend through slots provided in the guide 52. Similarly, by loosening a clamping nut 83, the guide [511 is adjustable for control of the extent of its guiding action as the box blanks are moved into registry Wih their wrappers, a slot being shown in member 15a, Fig. 4, for this adjustment.

When an operator, as above described, moves the box blanks into registration with the duplex wrappers, two wrappers mechanically connected together would, in general, be adequate. However, more than two wrappers may be secured together, as for example, where provision is made for automatic transfer of box blanks to the wrappers. Each group may comprise three or four or more wrappers, each having applied thereto tabs and adhesive material or glue as it is fed to the suction conveyor.

While a preferred form of the invention has been described and a number of modifications thereof indicated, it is to be understood that further changes may be made without departing from the scope of the appended claims,

What is claimed is:

1. The method of making boxes which comprises locating in predetermined position at an assembly station a duplex wrapper, placing in registration on each half of said duplex Wrapper a box blank, and thereafter concurrently covering the box blanks each with its own half of said duplex wrapper.

2. The method of making boxes which comprises bringing duplex wrappers in succession to standstill at an assembly station, while at standstill simultaneously registering on each duplex wrapper a pair of box blanks, and thereafter individually and concurrently covering said pair of box blanks each with its own wrapper.

3. In a system for making boxes having a suction conveyor, the method which comprises feeding in succession to the conveyor adhesivelycoated duplex wrappers partly joined together along one side and each having tabs located along predetermined sides thereof, while said duplex wrapper is at standstill at an assembly station placing a pair of box blanks in registration respectively with each half of said duplex wrapper, severing said duplex wrapper into two wrappers, and thereafter individually and concurrently covering said pair of box blanks each with its own wrapper.

4. A method of making wrapped boxes which includes the steps of feeding freshly adhesivelycoated duplex wrappers in turn to an assembly station, at said station substantially concurrently registering a pair of box blanks on respective halves of each of said duplex wrappers, and transporting from said station assemblies each comprising a duplex wrapper and a pair of box blanks adhesively attached thereto in registered position thereon.

5. A method of making wrapped boxes which includes the steps of intermittently feeding a succession of freshly adhesively-coated duplex wrappers toward and beyond an assembly station, at said station substantially concurrently registering a pair of box blanks on respective halves of each of said duplex wrappers as it in turn is at a standstill at said station, and at a station beyond said assembly station in turn severing each of said duplex wrappers to form two assemblies each comprising a box blank and a wrapper adhesively attached thereto in registered position thereon.

6. A method of making wrapped boxes which comprises intermittently feeding freshly adhesively-coated duplex wrappers toward and beyond an assembly station to a wrapping station, at said assembly station substantially concurrently manually registering a pair of box blanks on respective halves of each of said duplex wrappers as it in turn is at a standstill at said station, and at said wrapping station in turn severing each of said duplex wrappers to form two box and Wrapper assemblies which are substantially concurrently converted at said wrapping. station to a pair of wrapped boxes.

7. A method of making wrapped boxes which comprises feeding duplex wrappers in succession to an assembly station, in each interval between delivery of successive wrappers to said station delivering a pair of box blanks thereto in side-byside position, simultaneously manually registering the box blanks of each pair upon respective halves of a wrapper at said station, and transferring from said station successive assemblies, eachcomprising a duplex wrapper and a pair of box blanks attached thereto in registered position thereon.

JOHN S. STOKES.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 303,600 Abbott Aug. 12, 1884 722,038 Pidgeon Mar. 3, 1903 845,205 Stokes Feb. 26, 1907 1,302,236 Smith Apr. 29, 1919 1,402, 59 Smith Jan. 3, 1922 1,822,054 Melville Sept. 8, 1931 1,894,547 Tucker Jan. 17, 1933 2,236,664 Arneson Apr. 1, 1941 2,247,672 Thum July 1, 1941 2,346,792 Rush Apr. 18, 1944 2,362,168 Stokes Nov. '7, 1944 

